Boys MIAA tourney hockey: Barnstable wins to reach final

Barnstable passes test

BOURNE — Kyle Rood crashed the net and took a feed from behind the cage from teammate Donnie Brodd. He popped the puck into the net over the Norwood goalie to send Barnstable to the MIAA South Sectional Division 1 finals with a come-from-behind, 5-4, overtime win over the Mustangs Wednesday night at Gallo Ice Arena.

Because of incorrect information provided to the Times, a photo and this story misidentified a player on the Barnstable High School boys hockey team. Drew Lambert, No. 11, scored the game-tying goal against Norwood on Wednesday.

BOURNE — Kyle Rood crashed the net and took a feed from behind the cage from teammate Donnie Brodd. He popped the puck into the net over the Norwood goalie to send Barnstable to the MIAA South Sectional Division 1 finals with a come-from-behind, 5-4, overtime win over the Mustangs Wednesday night at Gallo Ice Arena.

"I can't breathe right now," said Red Raider head coach Scott Nickerson. "To come back from a two-goal deficit like we did showed a lot of drive by our kids. They earned this win."

The victory matches sixth-seeded Barnstable against top-seeded Braintree in Sunday's 1:45 p.m. South final back at Bourne's Gallo Ice Arena.

Barnstable came out with all cylinders firing on Wednesday night.

As has been the style all tournament, the Raiders seized the advantage, picking up where they left off after their win over Milton in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Barnstable outshot Norwood, 7-2, in the first period and grabbed the lead when Cody Pasic rifled a shot from the slot past goalie Dennis Drummey.

The Raider penalty killing unit was tested as three sins were whistled against them. In all three cases, no shots reached goalie Kevin Huska.

That all changed in the middle period, despite Barnstable outshooting Norwood, as the Mustangs finally connected when a fourth penalty caught up with the Raiders.

With a man in the box, Norwood's John Galvin scored to tie it 1-1 at 8:04. Just over two minutes later, the Mustangs grabbed the lead on a Mark Powers goal at 10:19.

"We play a physical game," Nickerson said. "Sometimes I think we get called for penalties we shouldn't, but we've done a good job killing those off for the most part. The problem is it takes a lot out of the kids on the ice and sometimes it wears us down."

And sometimes, Barnstable responds quickly.

The Raiders did just that when Brodd got that one back just nine seconds later at 10:28 with assists from Pasic and Rood to make it 2-2.

A failure to control a faceoff in the Norwood end resulted in Jack Sheehan outracing the Barnstable defense to the loose puck, going in alone on Huska and sending the shot high over the goalie's glove hand to make it 3-2 at the end of two.

Sheehan came back and gave Norwood a two-goal cushion when he was in the right spot at the right time to take a mishandled puck by the Raiders and beat Huska at 7:35 to increase the advantage to 4-2.

This time it took Barnstable just 11 seconds to close the gap to one score when Pasic notched his second goal of the night at 7:46, finding the puck from a scrum in front of the net and sending it home.

The Raiders continued to press for the equalizer and got it when a Norwood clearing pass went on the stick of Drew Lambert in the right circle. He beat Drummey high to the stick side to tie the game at 4-4 with 4:44 remaining in the period.

"We never lost faith, especially if we could keep it even at 5-on-5," Nickerson said.

That set the stage for the six-minute overtime period and the winning goal was made possible by the hustle of Brodd, who beat the defenseman to the puck at the back boards. He circled behind the cage and hit the fast-closing Rood in the slot for the game-winner.

"There's a lot of emotion with this group and they don't quit," said Nickerson. "If you work hard, it's usually something good that comes from it."